Least ecstatic reaction of the year

“Oh, Christ. You can’t go on getting excited every year about this. I’ve won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one.”

Doris Lessing’s response on being told she had won the Nobel prize for literature

Best bid to reduce own sales

“When people pick up a book they may want something happy that will cheer them up. In that case they shouldn’t really pick up my book. It’s the intellectual equivalent of a Hollywood weepie.”

Anne Enright discussing her Man Booker-winning The Gathering, Today programme

Reassuring declaration of the year

“I don’t want to strip-search you, Yasmin, or do anything that would even momentarily surprise your dignity, or that of any eirenic Muslim.”

From Martin Amis’s letter to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown defending his “thought experiment” (also criticised by Terry Eagleton and Ronan Bennett) suggesting anti-Muslim measures

Most patronising rejection letter

“It seems like a really original and interesting read.”

Penguin turns down chapters from Pride and Prejudice, submitted by David Lassman

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